


The Malcolm/Reyna Fic That No One Asked For

by heydannyyouinlondon



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Blushing, Chess, Cute, F/M, Fluff, Post BoO, also on ff.net, dont judge pls, i forgot this existed lol, i have unreasonable feelings about malcolm ok, i wrote this like 2 years ago, underrated tbh, unheard of ship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-21
Updated: 2016-10-21
Packaged: 2018-08-23 19:47:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,704
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8340376
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heydannyyouinlondon/pseuds/heydannyyouinlondon
Summary: Reyna is exhausted after the long fight against Gaea and her assorted forces.The only thing she wants right now is to curl up with a nice thick book and relax. Annabeth, like the bro she is, lets her slip away; but leaves someone to watch over her and make sure she can make it back to dinner.AU where the Athena Cabin has a massive library inside. I haven't edited this in like a year, so if it's crap I have no literal clue. Fluff, and my son Malcolm being represented like he needs to be.





	1. Blush

Reyna was tired. All she really wanted to do was flop onto that deliciously soft-looking couch in the Big House and sleep for a week, but Reyna had duties as a leader and a diplomat to fulfill. She had to take the official Camp Half-Blood tour, courtesy of Annabeth. While Reyna thanked the gods that it was Annabeth instead of someone who might ask her too many questions, she was getting sick of Annabeth's running monologue about the camp.   
"...but Chiron thought that 'poop pile' was inappropriate for..." Annabeth paused, looking at Reyna over her shoulder. "I was doing it again, wasn't I?"  
Reyna nodded, giving her a wry smile.  
"Sorry, I know you want this over with," Annabeth said, grinning. "Let's skip the archery range and woods and cut straight to the cabins, shall we?"   
"Lead the way, Chase," Reyna replied, relieved. Annabeth refrained from the long descriptions, which Reyna was grateful for, and led her around the cabins. The cabins were a strange grouping, with a cabin of solid gold, one decrepit looking cabin with the paint peeling off, one with grass growing from the roof, and one that was so pink, it was hard to look at. But Reyna's favorite cabin was the Athena cabin, with its simple outward decor, nothing too flashy.   
But what Reyna liked best about the cabin was the inside. Past several rows of bunks and a few chess tables further back, were rows upon rows of bookshelves, filled with books. Annabeth explained that while most of the books were nonfiction, per-Athena style, anyone could donate a book to the library they had set up, and over the past few years more and more shelves had had to be added to their fiction section.  
Reyna was in heaven. She ignored the fiction section, looking for her favorite books in the nonfiction part of the library. Though a great deal of them were in Greek, Reyna found several classic books in Latin. When Reyna finally looked up from her book by Pliny the Younger, several hours had passed. Surprised, she looked around for Annabeth. But the only one left in the Athena cabin was Reyna.   
Or so she thought, because sitting unnoticed at a chess table in a dark corner was a blonde boy Reyna's age. But Reyna did not see him, so she started when he cleared his throat.  
"Annabeth told me to stay and make sure you could make your way back to the dining pavilion; she figured you'd be a while."  
Reyna spun around to look at him, heart pounding.  
"You might have mentioned you were in here," she huffed, slightly embarrassed at being startled by the boy. "Or told me what time it was about an hour and a half ago. I wouldn't have wasted the whole afternoon in here if you'd done that."  
The boy stood, and stepped into a beam of light coming from a skylight. Reyna looked at him, and automatically began assessing him. Tall, she thought, but not quite tall enough to have an advantage in a fight. Blonde, grey eyes. Obviously one of Annabeth's brothers, so probably at least as good as at strategy as me, if not better. He's not armed, at least not visibly so, so his only possible weapon is a knife because it's easier to conceal-Reyna cut herself off. We're allies now, she reminded herself, so start getting out of the fighting mentality.   
Without noticing, while having this small inner battle, she noticed something else. He's rather good looking, she thought, surprised. She refused to call him cute, or, gods forbid, hot; it was too far beneath her dignity. But something about the sparkle in his eyes, the the almost-shy smile on his face, the casual slouch in his shoulders, his seemingly ready-for-anything stance was attractive. Stop it, Reyna, she scolded herself. Just because you shouldn't act like he's an enemy does not mean you should moon over him like some child of Venus!  
Luckily for Reyna, all of this went through her head in the space of about three seconds, so when the boy spoke to her again, she didn't miss anything he said.   
"Wasted? I don't think it was wasted. You got to read, didn't you? And you didn't have to put up with other campers, Annabeth and I made sure of that."  
It took Reyna a moment to remember what they were talking about. She opened her mouth to thrust back a smooth reply, but found she couldn't argue with his logic.  
"What about you?" Reyna said instead. "Don't you count?"  
The boy flushed lightly. Oh gods, Reyna thought, he looks just that much more attractive when he's blushing.   
"You didn't know I was here though," the blonde said, bringing Reyna once again from her thoughts, "And that was the whole point."  
Reyna waved her hand, dismissing it.   
"Whatever. What time is it anyway...?" Reyna trailed off, realizing that she still did not know the boy's name.  
"Malcolm McCallister. Sorry, I get distracted sometimes, ADHD you know," the boy, Malcolm, said. "And it is..." He glanced down at his watch. "Five o'clock."  
"And what, Malcolm, did you do while I was in here for... three hours?" Reyna asked, curious.   
Malcolm gestured at the chess table behind him.   
"I was practicing."  
"The whole time?" Reyna was surprised. For a boy who claimed to have ADHD, that was a lot of sitting still. The boy, Malcolm, seemed to be on the verge of blushing, but, unfortunately, didn't.   
Wait, what? Unfortunately? Why do I care? Reyna asked herself.   
"Yeah, it's a hobby of mine," he said, still looking embarrassed. "Even some of my siblings find it kind of weird." He shrugged.   
"May I?" Reyna surprised herself, and evidently Malcolm as well, as she gestured to the chair opposite the one Malcolm had been sitting in just minutes before.  
"I, ah, sure! You play chess?" Malcolm asked her, fumbling over his words.   
"Yeah, my sister taught me," Reyna replied, while silently making vow to get him to blush again. She sat at the table, and began to set up the black pieces.  
"Should I go easy on you Reyna?" Malcolm asked, grinning. With a start, Reyna realized that it was the first time he'd said her name. She also realized that she really liked how it sounded when he said it, smooth and easy.  
"Easy on me? Do your worst, McCallister!" Reyna said.   
And with that began the hardest chess match Reyna had ever participated in. Malcolm was fantastic at chess, even better than she'd thought. Not only that, but Malcolm was incredibly distracting. Not only did he seem to grow more and more attractive by the minute, but she was also fighting another fierce battle with him; trying again and again to get him flustered. He'd caught on too, and was now trying to do the same to her, and it was now even harder to get him to blush. And all the while, they took piece after piece off the game board.  
"Well, Miss Arellano," Malcolm said, grinning at her scowl, " You are quite good, but not good enough, I'm afraid." He then proceeded to take out her queen with his last rook. "From here on out, it is only a matter of time before I win, Reyna dear."  
Reyna forced back her blush, and instead looked at him coyly.   
"Well, Mister McCallister, you certainly have taken my queen," she said as she rose from her chair. Placing her hands on either side of the table, she leaned forward without breaking eye contact with Malcolm. He leaned back a bit, looking a bit nervous.   
"But there is just one flaw with that plan, Malcolm darling. You forgot about my pawn."   
She then took his rook with her final pawn, moving it into the place she wanted. She looked back up at Malcolm's confused face.  
"Checkmate," she said, smiling widely.  
Malcolm looked at her in complete shock.   
"How did you-" Malcolm faltered. Reyna had come around to his side of the table, a dangerous smile on her face. She slowly leaned down until she could feel his warm breath on her cheeks. He looked very nervous.  
"Reyna, what are you doing?"   
His voice, Reyna noted with satisfaction, was higher than normal. Instead of answering, she continued leaning down. She put her fingers through his hair. He started, and put his arms tentatively around her waist, closing his eyes. She leaned in until she and Malcolm were less than a centimeter apart. After a moment, Malcolm opened his eyes to see Reyna grinning at him. She swiftly kissed him on the cheek and then bent forward to whisper in his ear.  
"You're so cute when you're confused. Almost as cute as when you're blushing."  
She leaned back just as she heard the conch shell horn for dinner. Malcolm's face was a deep crimson, and Reyna smiled.  
"I don't need your help finding the dining pavilion; you can stay here for as long as you need. See you at dinner, Malcolm, dear."  
She turned and walked towards the door. Just before she left, she turned partially back towards the dumbfounded Malcolm.   
"I can't wait for rematch," Reyna called over shoulder, grinning triumphantly. And that being said, she walked to the dining pavilion, where she spent all dinner thinking about a particularly cute blonde boy she'd left blushing in front of his chess board.


	2. Rematch

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Malcolm and Reyna have a rematch: but this time it's a little more public.

Reyna was having a very good day. It had been three months since the battle with Gaea, and Reyna was finally going to have a whole week of holiday time for the first time since she'd been praetor. She stretched her legs out as much as she could in the cramped space of Camp Half-Blood's white van. Jason, who was sitting next to her, was bouncing his leg up and down. He was as excited as she was to make it to camp. He'd had a rough past couple of months, making plans for temples to the gods and what-not, and was anxious to get back home after two weeks of being away from Piper.   
Reyna wasn't jealous of Piper's relationship with Jason anymore, and was good friends with both of them. No, Reyna had been thinking about a different blonde over the past few months. She'd been practicing, too. All of Camp Jupiter knew that she'd been playing chess every single chance she got, and Reyna had enjoyed hearing from Hazel the theories about the reason for her obsession with playing the game. Only one came close though; that she had a crush on some centurion, and said centurion enjoyed long, drawn out games of chess. Well, they got two out of three, anyway. But even Hazel didn’t know that chess wasn’t the only thing she’d been practicing the past few months.  
Jason sat up, still for the first time in hours.  
"Look, Reyna. We're almost there! I can see Thalia's tree!"   
Jason was practically bouncing up and down his seat now, eager with anticipation.   
"Gods, Jason," Reyna said, smiling. "Can't you sit still for a single minute?"  
Jason settled back into his seat, smiling sheepishly. But as they drove up the hill, they could see a small crowd of people waiting for them, and Jason started squirming in his seat again. Reyna couldn't help but feel excited as well. What if Mal- er, Annabeth, yes, Annabeth, is in that crowd? She thought. Oh gods, what if he, I mean she; oh, never mind! What if Malcolm is there? Oh gods, oh gods, oh gods...  
Just as Reyna was beginning to panic, Argus, their many-eyed driver, stopped the car in front of the crowd of people that had gathered to greet her and Jason. Reyna let Jason clamber out of the car first as she composed herself.  
It's just Malcolm, she tried to convinced herself. If you're freaking out when you see him, you will be much more prone to blushing. You can't let him win this little game of ours just because you were feeling a little anxious.   
As Reyna stepped out of the car, she had to force herself to not scan the small crowd for him. She was instantly mobbed by people, and when she saw blonde curls coming her way, her heart leapt to her throat. Unfortunately, it was just Annabeth.   
"Reyna! It's great to see you!" Annabeth said enthusiastically, giving Reyna a hug. "How was the trip?"  
"It was fine," Reyna said, fighting to keep her disappointment off her face. "Grace bounced in his seat the whole way here though, he was so excited."   
"Missed me that much, huh Sparky?" Piper teased her boyfriend. "I'm flattered!"  
"Nah," Jason replied, grinning. "I just missed the food."  
Piper smacked him on the arm, smiling.   
"I am personally offended, Grace," Reyna deadpanned. "Is our cuisine not refined enough for you?"  
Annabeth, Piper, Percy, Nico, and Will laughed as Jason struggled to find an appropriate answer. Reyna's mind, however, had wandered off again.   
Why isn't he here? Where is he? If he was here, he would have come over by now...  
She allowed herself to quickly glance around at the crowd of people. But the only blondes there were Annabeth, Jason, and the healer Will Solace, who had an arm around a scowling Nico. She would have to ask him about that later.   
Annabeth did not miss Reyna's glance around, nor the look of disappointment she let show for just a moment. Annabeth smirked at her.   
"If you're wondering, he's at the table waiting for you," Annabeth said.  
Reyna gaped at her.   
"How did you...?"  
Annabeth laughed lightly.   
"Don't you think I grilled my brother for every detail as soon as we left dinner? It's not often he's in a library alone with a pretty girl. That he's not related to, anyway."  
Reyna grinned and started for the Athena Cabin, ignoring the confused looks on her friends faces.  
"Oh, and Reyna?" Annabeth called.   
Reyna turned to her.  
"Good luck. He's been practicing, and he may be better than you think," Annabeth said, winking.  
Reyna smirked.   
"You haven't seen how much I've been practicing these past three months."  
Annabeth laughed, and Reyna hurried to the library, not noticing the six people following her to the Athena cabin, whispering amongst themselves.   
As Reyna approached the grey cabin, she slowed her pace, trying to slow her frantic heartbeat. As she approached the small structure, she regained some of her usual confidence, determined to win round two with Malcolm. She stopped before opening the door. Alright Reyna, she thought. Just like you’ve practiced. Slow and confident up to the table. When she stepped inside, however, she faltered. Unlike the last time she'd been in the Athena Cabin, there were lots of people inside. And not just the Athena kids; there were lots of other campers moseying through the aisles, looking for a book, or reading on comfortable-looking armchairs.   
Gods, Reyna thought, there is way too many people here. How am I going to keep myself from blushing with an audience?  
But as she walked down the past the rows of bunk beds, another thought occurred to her: How will he? I can use this situation to my advantage.  
Confident once again, she strode up to their chess table, where Malcolm sat waiting for her. He grinned when he saw her, but she spoke before he had the chance to open his mouth.   
"Hello, Malcolm dear," Reyna said loudly. A few heads turned their way. "How've you been the past few months? I do hope you've been practicing as much as I have. Either way though, you are going to lose again today." She smiled as a dozen more heads turned towards them.   
"You? Practicing? I thought you were praetor; doesn't that mean not a lot of free time, dear?" Malcolm obviously saw what she was doing, and was trying to take advantage of the attention being focused on them. "I think that last game was pure luck."  
Their audience was growing, and Reyna felt their eyes on her as she sat in her chair.  
"Pure luck? That was sheer genius, Malcolm McCallister, and you know it. You’re just upset because you were beaten by someone who isn't a child of Athena." She could see the Stoll brothers making bets with several people in the corner of her eye, but she refused to acknowledge the crowd of people around them. By then, nearly everyone in the library was watching them.  
Reyna began setting up her pieces, surprised Malcolm had remembered that she chose the black pieces last time. Malcolm, pieces already set up, grinned at her quip.  
"Well then, Rey,” Malcolm said as Reyna frowned at the horrid nickname, “Do you want to bet on it?"  
Reyna looked at him, surprised. She didn’t have a plan for that one.  
"All right then, Mal," she said, smiling at his frown. "What do you bet?"  
He gave her a wide Cheshire-cat smile.  
"I bet you 50 drachmas that you are going to win."  
Reyna blinked. If he bets that I win, then if I do, he wins his bet and 50 drachmas, however that converts to denarii. But if I don't, then... I lose. But I can't lose, and I can't let him win, so...  
"Only 50 drachmas? Please," she said, enjoying his confusion. "I think we should up the ante here. How about if I win the game, I have to kiss you. And if, by some miracle, you win the game, you get to kiss me."  
The room was so quiet, you could've heard a pin drop. Reyna risked a quick glance around the room. Several jaws had dropped, and there even seemed to be even more people in the room. Among those who'd joined were Percy, who looked like he'd been hit over the head, Jason, who had a similar expression on his face, as well as Piper, Annabeth, and Nico, who all looked like they were trying very hard not to laugh. Will Solace was probably not very far from Nico, but Reyna couldn't see him.  
By far, however, the best expression was on Malcolm's face. She could see the flush creeping up his neck as he realized there was no way to back out without losing his dignity. He did not let the flush reach his cheeks, but his flustered expression was almost good enough on its own.  
"Well?" Reyna said, thoroughly pleased with herself. "What do you think?"  
"I, ah, sure. Er, I mean, yes, I agree to your terms," Malcolm said, obviously embarrassed. "Let's begin, then."  
For the next hour or so, Reyna and Malcolm, who'd pulled together his confidence for the rest of their game, went head to head in game of chess even more intense than the last, with several new tricks on the parts of both Malcolm and Reyna. Both were at the same time trying furiously to get each other to blush, and neither succeeding. They’d practiced well. The crowd, instead of slowly fizzling away, seemed to grow in size, and several times Reyna saw the Stoll brothers cashing in bets in the corner of her eye.   
Finally, it was down to Reyna's queen, knight, and three or so pawns to defend her king against Malcolm's queen, bishop, knight, and pawn. The odds did not look good. Reyna seemed to be losing. But the game was not over yet.   
"Eager for me to kiss you, Malcolm? Because it sure seems like you want me to win; you are making this far too easy."   
"Not at all Reyna; I prefer being the more dominant one in a couple," Malcolm said cheekily.   
For what felt like the millionth time that day, Reyna felt a blush creeping up her neck. No, just focus on what you practiced. You’ve done this a thousand times. Just make your move. She calmly took his bishop with her knight.  
"Check," Reyna said, smiling.   
Malcolm looked at the board in annoyance, and moved his king to the one spot her knight could not reach.   
"The game is not over yet, Reyna," Malcolm said as she moved a pawn towards his knight. "I can still win this game."  
"Really?" Reyna said unblinkingly as he took the pawn. "Because you just made a big mistake." With that, she moved her queen to the spot his knight had just been. "Checkmate."  
Shocked, Malcolm looked at the board. After a moment, he chuckled weakly and shook his head.  
"Gods, and I thought I had you this time." He sighed. He ran a hand through his hair, leaving the curls messier than before, which was definitely not attractive. Reyna walked around the chess table to his side. He stood, making the several inches he had on her much more obvious. He slipped his hands around her waist, resting his hands carefully on her hips.   
"I believe I just won our bet, Reyna," Malcolm said quietly, though Reyna was sure even the people in the very back could hear what he said. She could hear a couple of people who were to hyperventilating. She chuckled.   
"What?" Malcolm asked as Reyna wrapped her hands around his neck.   
"Our audience seems very excited."  
Did he always smell this nice? Reyna wondered.  
Malcolm smiled and closed his eyes. Reyna did the same and leaned in, slowly closing the space between them. And their lips finally, finally, met.   
The huge crowd of people in the Athena Cabin erupted in cheers, clapping, and wolf-whistling. But Reyna didn't hear them, because she was too distracted by the fireworks exploding behind her eyelids. She'd kissed a couple boys before, and while she remembered feeling giddy, she didn't remember feeling quite like this. Maybe because she liked Malcolm much better than the others, or maybe because of the months of anticipation and waiting. But gods, kissing Malcolm felt like being on top of the world.   
When they broke apart, it felt like several days had passed, but judging by how exuberantly people were still cheering, it had only been a few seconds. She looked at Malcolm and started to laugh. His face was bright red.   
"Somebody's happy," Reyna said, still laughing.  
"Yeah," said Malcolm, grinning back. "That's just about right."

**Author's Note:**

> yeah so i posted this fic on ff.net like 2 years ago and it did alright i guess, i rememered its existence and figured i put it here too. i thought malcolm and reyna would be cute idk you guys  
> leave kudos and comments pls im lonely


End file.
